Tips and Tipping

News about Tips and Tipping, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 26, 2015

Nick Bilton Disruptions column holds that wave of mobile applications used to pay for meals and services is putting pressure on customers to tip, forcing them to choose between number of preset tipping options or 'No Tip' choice; notes that all-inclusive price apps may be starting backlash against proliferation of tipping. MORE

Feb. 25, 2015

New York Gov Andrew M Cuomo announces raise in minimum wage for New York City's tipped workers to $7.50 per hour; rejects Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal of $13 per hour minimum; increase will take affect at end of 2015. MORE

Feb. 4, 2015

Editorial laments that New York State Wage Board, convened by acting labor commissioner Mario Musolino, failed to end practice of subminimum wages for tipped workers in restaurants, antiquated holdover that is kept in place by restaurant lobby; urges Musolino to reject recommendation by board and abolish practice, and calls on Gov Andrew Cuomo to support extension of minimum wage to restaurant servers. MORE

Feb. 1, 2015

Proliferation of digital payment options is allowing merchants of all varieties to encourage their customers to tip, and many customers feel once-standard amounts for tipping are being increased; trend is occurring against a backdrop of national debate over plight of low-wage workers. MORE

Jan. 31, 2015

New York State board recommends increase in hourly wage for tipped workers like restaurant servers, suggesting rate of $7.50 hourly before gratuities, up from current $5; state law lets business owners pay tipped workers below minimum wage of $8.75, provided tips make up difference. MORE

Dec. 23, 2014

Appraisal column notes that for building workers tips during holidays are not always expected, but are always welcome and sometimes employees are surprised by people's generosity. MORE

Oct. 19, 2014

Ginia Bellafante Big City column calls for examination of sexism experienced by women in restaurant industry; notes that tipped workers who are female are particularly subject to harassment because they depend directly on customers for their livelihood; points to data showing that more than 90 percent of female restaurant workers have experienced harassment. MORE

Aug. 20, 2014

Cartoon characters populating Times Square have formed group called New York Artists United for a Smile, which seeks to improve its members' faltering public image; New York City laws forbid street performers to demand tips or panhandle aggressively, but at same time they are permitted to accept donations; police officers have been notifying pedestrians that tipping is not required, upsetting many street performers. MORE

Jun. 9, 2014

Editorial contends Congress should raise federal minimum wage; maintains failure to do so affects estimated 27.8 million people, hardest hit of which are the roughly 3.3 million Americans who work for tips; calls for at least raising the tipped minimum wage, since that has not changed since 1991. MORE

Mar. 9, 2014

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers questions about people who buy homes of historic or architectural significance and distributing a tip jar in a coat-check room to other employees. MORE

Feb. 21, 2014

Labor Department says Chickie's & Pete's, popular chain of sports bars in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has agreed to pay $6.8 million in back wages and damages for improperly taking tips from waiters and bartenders, and for violating minimum wage and overtime laws. MORE

Feb. 9, 2014

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers questions about recording business conversations without anyone else knowing, tipping luggage delivery drivers, posting naked photos on the Internet and being overcharged at restaurants. MORE

Jan. 27, 2014

Restaurant industry is strongly opposed to mandated increase of minimum wage for tipped workers, as Democrats continue to push; restaurant owners, under current federal law, are required to pay minimum of $2.13 an hour toward waiter’s wages as long as customers’ tips lift waiter’s pay to $7.25 federal minimum wage. MORE

Dec. 10, 2013

The Appraisal column observes that although many Upper East Side building workers keep quiet about how much money residents give them for year-end tips and bonuses, others cannot resist comparing notes. MORE

Sep. 15, 2013

Editorial highlights fact that tipped employees in America are part of a parallel economic universe in which employers are allowed to pay sub-minimum wages, with predictably devastating results; calls for an increase in the minimum wage as well as an increase in minimum pay for tipped workers. MORE

Sep. 4, 2013

Pete Wells Critic's Notebook column contends that leaving a generous tip at a restaurant has no effect on service, and suggests re-evaluating entire practice of tipping; praises Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan, which has raised its prices in order to fully compensate its service staff through salary and benefits, eliminating the need for tipping. MORE

Jul. 2, 2013

Few business travelers remember to add cash tips to their expense reports, and no one has come up with a mobile app to help; most companies allow for reasonable tips in their travel guidelines. MORE

Jun. 27, 2013

New York State Court of Appeals issues advisory opinion agreeing with Starbucks company policy that shift supervisors at coffeehouse chain, but not assistant managers with significant authority over other employees, may share in baristas' tip pool. MORE

Jun. 7, 2013

Sushi Yasuda, Midtown Manhattan restaurant, has adopted the profoundly un-American custom of including the cost of service in the price of the food; idea of removing the tip from the equation is to provide customers with an authentic Japanese dinner experience; in Japan, as at Sushi Yasuda, servers receive salaries and benefits, and any tips go to restaurant. MORE

Apr. 7, 2013

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers question about tipping immigration officer while traveling through Cambodia. MORE

Jan. 6, 2013

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers questions about university honor codes, tipping and lying about one's homosexuality in order to give blood. MORE

Jan. 3, 2013

Taxi ridership in New York City remains steady four months after rates were raised by roughly 17 percent, but percentage given as a tip to drivers has fallen, with tips from riders paying by credit card down to 15.5 percent, from 17 in 2011. MORE

Mar. 27, 2012

Workers like bellhops and hotel concierges have seen their tips decline as people travel less and try to do it less expensively; skycaps at airports are seeing decreased tips due to baggage fees. MORE

Dec. 25, 2011

Gina Bellafante Big City column says that tipping of domestic staff, such as doormen and superintendents, is a complicated affair in which it is impossible to establish uniformity; argues that New York City economy's reliance on culture of mercurially determined generosity is emblematic of its shaky relationship to the egalitarian. MORE

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December 23, 2014, Tuesday

A national study says more than 90 percent of female restaurant workers had experienced sexual harassment, an indictment of an economic structure that turns customers into shadow employers, leaving servers vulnerable.